Silver Like the Moonlight
by Sebe
Summary: Speculation on Season 3. If you kill an alpha, you inherit their power, right? What if you're human? Stiles never wanted this...Sterek and pack-ness.


Author's Notes: Season 3 speculation. An alpha pack is moving in. If you kill an alpha, you inherit their power, right? But what happens if a human, if Stiles, kills an alpha that threatens the pack? He has no idea what's happening and he's scared because he knows how it is, one alpha to a pack. He finally has a cohesive pack, a family, and he doesn't want to lose them.

This assumes that everyone has come together already as a real, no double agents, pack. They fight off the threat of the invading alphas together. Peter isn't in this. Stiles and Derek are together, so Sterek.

Summary: Speculation on Season 3. If you kill an alpha, you inherit their power, right? What if you're human? Sterek and pack-ness.

**Silver Like the Moonlight**

"Stiles…" He doesn't look up, doesn't even really hear Derek.

He never wanted this. He wanted to stay human. Even if it made him weaker. Even if he'd never be the kind of strong the wolves were. Not even as strong as Lydia and Allison were. He didn't want it.

And now here he is and everything's different. Even if he couldn't see the pack's reaction to him, he'd know. Something's changed. He can feel it as he stares at his hands, still covered in blood, body of the invading alpha lying at his feet. Something _in him_ has changed. He wasn't bitten. He wasn't. He was sure…he thought he was sure…

"What-", Stiles' voice is broken, vision blurry because really, he already knows. He looks at his hands; they aren't claws, not yet. "Derek, what am I?"

He'd seen his reflection. He doesn't want to know but he needs to. Because he's seen a lot of werewolves, other packs and his own.

And none of them had silver in their eyes.

He'd known as soon as he'd picked up Allison's discarded machete that there would be a high price for what he was about to do. But it hadn't been a choice, not really. Take his chance and kill the lead alpha or watch as their pack tore his pack apart. Take out the lead. Even in an alpha pack, there was still a leader.

Not being a choice didn't make it hurt any less.

Stiles wants to break, but knows he can't. The entire pack, beaten and battered as they are, is watching him. He has to hold together for them. He spends a very long time looking, really nowhere at all, lost in his own head. When Derek puts a hand against his jaw, Stiles cringes, but leans into it. When he looks up, he finds something unexpected.

The way Derek's looking at him. It's not horror or sympathy. Derek's eyes are wide and bright, mouth slightly open as he just stares at Stiles.

Eyes daring to dart around the alpha, Stiles sees the rest of the pack in a similar state. They were looking at him with wide eyes and open expressions.

Like they were seeing something holy.

"Stiles…" Derek's fingers are stroking the side of his face. Stiles could feel the slight tremor in his hand. He braces himself for Derek's answer. "You're an alpha."

A sob bursts free without his permission and he buries his face in his hands, sorrow so deep he feels like laughing. It was the worst of every outcome he'd imagined. Stiles knew what 'alpha' meant.

He'd have to leave. They were going to turn on him, turn cold and aggressive and force him out. His friends, pack, family, his lover, they were all going to leave him. Snap and snarl and ignore until he left them.

Only one alpha to a pack, a territory. Ever. That's what this whole fight, this war had been about in the first place. Stiles had rarely believed he'd make it out of their battles with the alpha pack alive and whole, but he'd just never thought he'd be this kind of casualty.

Derek was trying to gently pull Stiles' hands away from his face, but he resisted. The teen just wanted a little more time. Just a few more minutes to carve it into his memory; their perfectly imperfect family. When everything was warm and beautiful and every breath with them made him feel invincible.

When he was loved.

But Derek keeps pulling his hands and grabbing Stiles' jaw, forcing him to look up and hear his fate laid before him. Stiles had never thought he was weak in this way, but he thought this might be it for him. He could never live through this. Finally having everything he wanted only to have it taken back in the cruelest way.

Derek is gently thumbing tears away from his closed eyes, brushing over Stiles' cheekbones.

Maybe Derek wants to remember too.

But nothing can last. Stiles knew that before, knows it now. He just got caught up and let himself forget for awhile. He feels the alpha's breath an inch from his face.

"You're human." Stiles eyes snap open. Betryl sweeping across his devastated face at the obvious lie, wondering why Derek would want to hurt him more. Maybe it was already starting, pushing him away, out. But Derek's not lying. Stiles knows what the wolf looks like when he does that and there's nothing of a lie there. Confusion overtakes pain. But Derek's smiling, looking on the verge of tears himself. "Stiles, I don't know how, but…you're human."

Stiles' mind has been kicked around enough by his emotions today and is not working quickly as a result.

"…You…said I was an alpha."

"You are." The teen goes to curl inward, back into a little ball of misery again, but Derek doesn't let him, voice more forceful. "You're an alpha, Stiles. A human alpha."

"What are you talking about?"

Scott steps forward to where Stiles can see him clearly.

"We can tell. All of us." He's staring bright-eyed, the way they all are now. "He's not lying. We can feel that you're an alpha."

"We can feel how strong you are." Boyd tells him. "And how human."

Stiles shakes his head slowly and looks back to Derek.

"It's never happened. Humans can't be…but you are." Derek has a hand on his neck now. "Silver eyes." He says it like he's in a daze.

"Are you…you still going to run me off?" Derek recoils like he's been physically hurt and Stiles sees a wave of it go through the rest of them.

"No! Never. You're home. This is your home. And you're our home."

The rest of the pack is around them now.

"…I'm still pack?" Stiles isn't getting it, but they can feel his pain, his hurt and grief about nightmare scenarios that are never to be.

Scott pushes forward, wraps his arms around his brother first. He's quickly followed by Issac and then the others, humans and former were-lizards included. They surround him, touching him, listening to his heartbeat and trying to soothe the distress in their second alpha.

They're…going to keep him? He can't believe it. He's read everything ever written about werewolves, sunk countless hours into research. He _knows_ how this ends.

Derek smiles softly, watching them, his pack; _their_ pack.

"You've always been my equal, Stiles. You've always cared for them, for us, like an alpha." Derek moves closer and the wolves are quick to shift around, allow Derek closest to Stiles. "You are always pack."

When Derek's hands touch him, one on his neck and one on his waist, Stiles reaches forward and clings to him, shaking. Deliriously happy and relieved and hoping and praying this isn't all in his head.

He buries his face against Derek's collarbone and the wolf pushes into the juncture of his throat, nuzzling into the hollow there. He feels other hands on him, resting on his back, his shoulders, Scott's head against his neck. The pack crowds in around him, against him, and Derek breathes in his ear.

"You're _mine_."

It feels like home.


End file.
